The Predatory Wasp
Did you miss me? I was in Scotland for a week, and the wifi situation was untenable. Anyway I’m back now and have this deliciously mournful, Grouper-adjacent recommendation as an apology gift. The alias of Colombian-born artist Mónica Mesa, doris dana delves into the abstract aesthetics of liminal spaces and intangible experiences, and her new album Reveries is a late contender for experimental album of the year.
College Music Presents: PhonoSynthesis is the label’s fourth VA compilation, and explores the intimate relationship between music and nature, spanning solo, acoustic sounds through to modular synthesis masterpieces, and everything in between. Includes contributions from Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Shopan and this beauty from Dylan Henner.
Well this is just totally lush. DANIAILYAS is a transatlantic collaboration between Barcelona’s Dania Shihab and Portland’s Ilyas Ahmed. On their debut EP, Enough For Me To Remain, Shihab’s ethereal vocals and sweeping synths are intricately intertwined with Ahmed’s fluid, unpredictable guitar work. The result is a deeply immersive, almost spectral experience, balancing tenderness with an underlying tension. What emerges is both intimate and disorienting, like a love letter written in shadow and light, offering release and rupture in equal measure.
https://daniailyas.bandcamp.com/album/enough-for-me-to-remain
Joshua Idehen is a British-born Nigerian based in Sweden. A spoken word artist and musician, he has contributed poems to Mercury-nominated albums Channel The Spirits by The Comet Is Coming, Your Queen Is A Reptile and the Mobo winning Black Is The Future, both by Sons of Kemet. His latest single, Mum Does The Washing, takes a simple household chore and turns it into a commentary on society and the way we structure it, his dry, spoken-word delivery floating over stripped-back production, making the whole thing feel introspective yet still sharply pointed.
The blog has gone pretty ambient-heavy this week, but the heart wants what it wants. Today’s offering is taken fromThrob, shiver, arrow of time, the new album from Oliver Coates who created the incredibly moving soundtracks for the 2022 film Aftersun (highly recommended) amongst many other things. 90 is glassy, sparse, delicate and beautiful.
Naarm’s CS + Kreme return with a dreamy, psych-folk-infused third album that drifts through bittersweet electronics and dubby, heady grooves. Known for their shape-shifting sound since their 2017 debut, their latest album The Butterfly Drinks the Tears of the Tortoise, from which Corey is taken, is their most poetic and ethereal yet. Blending early industrial influences with Pacific rim sounds, it features everything from flamenco and Javanese strings to South African rhythms and chamber classical moments. A captivating, mind-bending journey, perfect for a reflective escape.
https://thetrilogytapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-butterfly-drinks-the-tears-of-the-tortoise
Last seen joining forces on their transcendent new album Infinite Light, Not Waving and Romance are back with a fantastically named new single, about which I can find absolutely nothing online save for a YouTube upload with a mere 77 plays. If more people liked this kind of celestial ambient droning, the world would be a significantly better place.
Extraordinary stuff from Klara Lewis on the opening and title track of her new album for Editions Mego, starting life as simple, mournful strings before becoming increasingly deranged, distorted and overwhelming over the course of its 20 minute runtime.
Midland’s debut album Fragments Of Us examines the queer experience, from the early days of the 80’s AIDs crisis up to the present day, and features the voices of some Midland’s artistic heroes including Arthur Russell, Marlon Riggs, David Wojnarowicz alongside the contemporary voices of Stereogamus’ Jonny Seymour and Horse Meat Disco’s Luke Howard. The subject matter is often dark, and includes news snippets following the introduction of Section 28 in the UK – which prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” in public life – to an excerpt from an audio diary of Wojnarowicz that concludes simply with “basically I don’t want to die”. But there’s hope and possibly catharsis in Midland’s production, which is warm and accessible without ever becoming bland or homogenised.
Leon Bridges’ voice is indescribably lush, and seems to belong to a completely different time. When he sings the hook on That’s What I Love, the stand-out track from his new album, Leon, everything else just melts away and you can ignore the trite, saccharine lyrics and even forgive him the ill-advised spoken word section about “the way the street smells after the rain”. In most other people’s hands this would be unbearable, but he makes it sublime.
The Predatory Wasp 